Corvette ED

Can't anyone make aftermarket fit like OEM. I bought a new gas door emblem for my 75. Trim Parts makes them and I spent $78.00 for one and went to install it. One of the studs is welded in the wrong spot, it won't line up with the factory holes. If I enlarge the hole it will not fit center in the door.

I took it back and the parts store had 8 other ones in stock and every one of them was made different. I took the best one of the group and it still isn't perfect, but I will have to live with it.




[Modified by Corvette ED, 10:50 PM 8/28/2003]

A C

I agree ED. Talk about poor build quality! :smash:

427V8

I think you are over estimating the build quality of an old vette. The emplem was probably hand fit then too

Crash Dummy

What you all forget is that GM never thought that some clowns(C-3 Section - Corvette Forum) would be trying to keep these vettes on the streets 30 years later and trying to make aftermarket parts fit on them. Odds are the aftermarket manufacturers got a couple of hundred OEM parts of each to use as a template and found none the same, so they continued the tradition. Nothing like OEM. :thumbs:

Larry B.

My69

:iagree: There is a lot of crap on the market. And these vendors get away with selling this

Corvette ED

You don't mind paying if the part is going to fit and work right. Most of this stuff is just plain junk.

427V8

I really don't disagree with this....

Jay M

I have found that the few available GM restoration parts work very well, but the other stuff is more of a crap shoot!

I think that the NCRS guys aren't really purists.. they are just too lazy to make aftermarket junk fit! :)

~Jay

mrvette

So much of any manufacturing process is EPA driven, parts can no longer be made like they used to, especially for our cars.....second off is we really don't know for sure what variations/tolerances GM allowed, and what extengencies (sp?) of production GM had to tolerate either, much less supplier variations....

been there seen/done that, do one, fine, custom kludge, fine.....

NOW, get the damn thing into production, we need 600 of them tomorrow morning at 6 am....

GENE

RATT7

I purchased an emblem for my gas door (1980) last year from GM and the fit and finish was excellent - Not sure if I was lucky, but it did work out well this time around :)

gdh

I bought an original L-88 hood and had a few fit problems putting it on my vette this spring, as it turned out I had replaced the original hinges as well, and noticed that mine were slotted. Long story short, the passenger side front 1/4 panel was not glued on properly from the factory and to make the hood align properly they had put slots in the hinges. We broke the glue and did it properly and the hood fit great - no slots. Quality was definately not Job 1 ( I know that's a Ford slogan).

A C

For sure body quality was very sketchy on early C3's. The thing I have a major beef with is interior trim parts. I got a driver's side lower dash pad for my 69 about a month ago and was literally AMAZED to see the backside looked EXACTLY like the original, only new. On the other hand, the passenger side lower dash pad was backed by black ABS plastic with no pre-tapped holes in the plastic or the vinyl covering. That's kinda crappy, as you now have to tap your own holes in a brand new $300 dash pad and if they don't line up you are screwed, because YOU tapped them. Thank god mine lined up. Also, the coupe rear pillar trim was a friggin disaster. It didn't form even remotely close to the body contour. I thought I was going to break it while bending it into the right shape. The screw holes in the door jamb area didn't line up at all, and I had to re-epoxy 3 or 4 of the nuts that come in the panel to get them to line up right. These are about 200 bucks for the set. There is about a 1/4 inch gap between the edge of the trim panel and the upper door jamb, where the stock panels fit flush. I don't think the factory went so far as to custom fit every interior panel. It would have been way too labor intensive. I just think the new parts are made like crap, and sold for an extemely high price.





[Modified by A C, 8:58 PM 8/29/2003]

ManFromEagle

My last years project was to redo the interior of my 77. I have come to the conclusion that aftermarket parts are more of a pain than you can imagine. If you can repair an original equipment part do it and bypass the shiny new repo. Every repro part I purchased did not fit well and had to be modified. I have had factory parts not fit also but they have always been easier to fit.

gdh

A friend of mine who rebuilds and restores vettes has been very pleased with Volunteer Vette, I have seen quite a few door panels and dash tops from them and they are good quality.